How Republicans Can Win Working Women In 2014

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans spent the past week driving messages intended to appeal to women. And for good reason: Women voters must be the centerpiece for any policy reformulation calculated to win the White House in 2016. There is simply no electoral map contortionism that can land a Republican in the White House without a fundamental repositioning of the GOP vis-à-vis women voters – especially if Hillary Clinton runs.

Women have outnumbered men at the voting booths for a generation now, and they have steadily moved away from the Republican Party. But importantly, GOP losses have not translated into Democratic gains. Turned off by policy ideas on both sides, women are increasingly identifying as Independents.

But there is a real opportunity in the upcoming election for Republicans to win back women voters by supporting policy that speaks to the heart of GOP values of self-reliance and lower taxes while reflecting the reality of a 21st century world.

We have for a long time now argued that personal and corporate tax rates are too high and that the high rates hurt women and men equally. This may be true, but the argument itself evidently has little effect in changing women’s views of the GOP. In 2012, 55% of women – and 13% more mothers – supported President Obama while only 44% voted for Mitt Romney.

In the next presidential cycle, the GOP can win back votes by recognizing the financial realities faced by women caregivers. And the most opportune way to do that is for our party to lead the charge in calling for specific and targeted tax cuts that directly impact women’s income. Modernizing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), a non-refundable federal tax credit that allows parents to offset a percentage of work-related child and dependent care expenses, should be part of the GOP policy arsenal.

Large cohorts of talented and skilled women are exiled from the workforce today because they have to care for children and elders and cannot earn enough after taxes to justify a return to work. The current child care deduction credit is capped at $1050 per child, which does not reflect the real cost of daycare or dependent care, inflation or the increase in marginal tax rate penalties inherent in moving up the income ladder.

The national average for daycare is around $12,000, and can reach $18,000 in urban areas. If a mother returns to work, thereby bumping her family’s combined income into the 25 percent tax bracket and paying for childcare, she is likely to work fulltime for a net income of just several thousand dollars. In other words, simple math outweighs the immediate benefit of returning to the workplace. The CDCTC, passed in 1976, should be increased to better account for the current costs of dependent care – the $1050 credit is $4240 in today’s dollars.

Republicans should advocate for this narrow tax cut that realistically recognizes what a family pays for dependent care so that wage earners – male and female – can choose freely to go to work and productively contribute to society. Child and elder care expenses should be treated more like a business expense because that is indeed what they are.

Family dynamics have changed drastically in recent years, outpacing the change in our political attitudes and policies. In today’s economic reality, mothers are often the ones with more education and hence more earning power. Our party’s pro-family policies should reflect the new American reality. Mothers who want or need to work should not face a federal “care-giver” tax penalty for seeking to increase their family’s income.

More women have supported Democrats in presidential elections. We may not be able to reverse the trend, but we can close the gap. Hillary Clinton’s looming presence over the presidential field gives agendas that appeal to women voters a new imperative. She may have a reputation as polarizing political figure but early polling numbers indicate that this may not matter among women. In a recent Quinnipiac poll of Ohio voters, women chose Clinton over all the potential GOP presidential candidates by a 30 point margin.

This advantage may be a significant divide to bridge. Democrats will run in 2016 on expanding universal pre-kindergarten in an appeal to women. A much better choice is to empower women with more income to use as they see fit to care for their families.

A smart, conservative, and modern tax policy such as increasing the CDCTC not only affirms the GOP’s low-tax and self-reliant beliefs, it speaks to women voters by directly addressing the challenges they face every day. Tweak the tax calculation so child care costs are treated a bit more like business expenses for the simple fact that daycare costs for women who want or need to work are simply the cost of doing business.

Juleanna Glover, Managing Director at Teneo Intelligence, is a former senior staffer to Dick Cheney, Rudy Giuliani, Steve Forbes, and John Ashcroft.

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